


we'll make the snow our own

by adoluvr



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Confessions, Fluff and Humor, Idiots in Love, M/M, Post-Graduation, reikao are them stupid ass gay uncles god bless
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28321539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adoluvr/pseuds/adoluvr
Summary: He doesn't let his hand go, Keito notices, not after he places the other around his waist again and nudges him to place his own free one on his shoulder. It's unprompted and out of place but also natural and comfortable and familiar, and Keito finds himself falling yet again into the routine of the year he's tried so hard to compress down into the back of his brain.There's no music, he wants to half-heartedly point out. There's no music, and they're slowly dancing around to the wisps of the wind and the crackles of laughter from inside the apartment like idiots. Even this sort of idiocy feels familiar.or, alternatively: rk throw a christmas party in their apartment. shenanigans ensue
Relationships: Hasumi Keito/Kiryuu Kurou
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35





	we'll make the snow our own

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in one sitting and an hour. bye

"Greetings," comes Rei Sakuma's pleasant, drawling voice as he holds the door open. There's a Christmas cap placed haphazardly on his head, looking ready to fall off. Kaoru Hakaze is stuck next to him by the hip, arm around his boyfriend's hips as he waves at the person in front with a suspiciously drunken grin. "I didn't think you'd show up, Kei-kun." There's loads of noise in the back, courtesy of the 'small party with close friends' Kaoru had texted him about in Rei's stead. In their new apartment. 

"I've obviously made a mistake," Keito says without a second thought, turning on his heel. If anything concerns Rei Sakuma, it's bound to be a mistake to follow through. 

He's just about to step off the porch when he hears steps in front. Raising his head to lock onto familiar eyes, Keito frowns. 

"Kiryu," he says. Rei lets out an indistinguishable noise from behind.

"Danna," The red-head, blinking up at him, frowns back. "I didn't think you'd be comin' here." 

Rei lets out another noise that sounds oddly like a wheeze. They both ignore it.

"Neither did I. Were you not going to spend Christmas with your family?" Keito steps in front, looking up at the taller boy with an easy smile on his face. 

Kuro sheepishly puts a hand on his neck with a grin, and Keito feels something akin to butterflies in his chest. "I thought it won't hurt t'visit friends." He turns to look at Rei and Kaoru standing at the door, both waving at him in some sort of unnaturally matched rhythm. "Seems like fate t'see ya here too, Danna."

Keito doesn't mention that he was about to leave. The smile doesn't let up from his features as he extends an arm towards Kuro. "I'm glad I could run into you, Kiryu. This party will just be a little more bearable with you around." 

Kuro laughs. He accepts Keito's hand and wounds his fingers tightly around his, and it feels natural. _Natural._ To be like this. 

Rei cackles behind them like a senile grandfather bent on embarrassing his first son getting a boyfriend. Keito wants to beat him stupid. 

"Shut up," Kaoru says, fondly. They step back to let their two new guests in, and close the door behind them. There is no place for cold winds in a highschool-reunion Christmas party that calls for nothing but hell. 

-

"Hasumi-dono! Kiryu-dono!" A shrieking voice suddenly interrupts the comfortable air, and Keito sees a flash of purple before he's being tackled to the nearest sofa. Kuro watches him with blown out eyes. 

Keito wheezes out a breath as he feels Souma squeeze him as if his life depends on it. "Kanzaki - _oi_ , Kanzaki-! St-" 

Souma lets him go, staring up at him with tearful eyes akin to a lonely puppy finally reuniting with his owner after a decade. Keito chokes out a breath. "Hasumi-dono! It has been too long since I saw you last!" He near-wails, before turning his head towards Kuro.

Kuro looks ready to run. Souma proves any attempt or thought fruitless as he jumps up with the speed of a cheetah, leaping onto the red-haired boy without any more contemplation.

Barely catching him in his arms and stabilizing his balance, Kuro lets out an uncharacteristic yelp as the swordsman hugs him with unnatural force. "Not too tight-!" He wheezes out, trying not to fall on his head. Souma doesn't see this, legs wrapping around his waist and arms tight around his neck as Kuro accidentally spins him around in their reunion. He thinks he's going to die. 

Keito is clutching his neck and wheezing. His glasses are askew, and he stares up at Kuro with a lamenting look in his eyes. 

There's no saving them, now.

-

Keito confiscates Souma's sword before any threat of casualty can occur.

-

The only ones at this party, Keito dreadfully notes, is UNDEAD. 

-

Adonis is standing on a small foot-stool, arranging ornaments carefully on the top layers of the unnecessarily large tree in the middle of the living room. Souma helps him by handing him the decorations one by one, providing his own opinions and encouragement. Koga's sitting on the ground next to them, patting a sleeping Leon in his lap. Kuro's sitting down with Kaoru, the former animatedly talking about how his sister had loved the dress Kaoru had helped him choose for her birthday. 

Keito looks around and notices that despite themselves, it's a nice place. There's a clean, small kitchen separated from the room with an equally clean bar, and the decorations are minimal. On or above the tables situated in an inordinate fashion around the room, there's several photographs. 

He finds himself walking towards them, and picks up a framed photograph of Kaoru, laughing and clothes drenched, holding an equally wet Leon poised over a washing tub. Koga's grinning in the back, squatting down and hands on his cheeks. Adonis is looking in from behind. Rei's probably the one that had taken this photograph, if the subtle blur is anything to go by. Keito finds himself smiling at it.

"Cute, isn't it?" Rei's voice interrupts, wiping off the smile instantly. Keito looks away, wanting to avoid any sort of relentless teasing. "Leon-kun's gotten fairly more attached to Kaoru-kun and I over the years." He sounds so uncontrollably fond, chin coming to rest on Keito's shoulder as he looks at the photograph from behind.

Keito hums. "I didn't realize you liked dogs, Sakuma-san. And it seems as if our children are faring better than we'd expected. It's a relief."

Rei fiddles with the glass of wine in his hand. "It appears as so. It makes this old man relieved, as well. After all," he muses, moving his head back to where the rest are spending their time together. "They're the few guiding lights in the darkness that are our lives, aren't they, Kei-kun?" 

"I can't disagree," Keito sighs. He places the photograph back, carefully, and turns to face Rei. "How is it?" He asks, suddenly. "Living together with him?"

"Kaoru-kun?" Rei blinks. The christmas cap previously on his head is long gone. Keito watches him turn his gaze to the ground. "It's comfortable. Cozy. He likes to cuddle." 

Keito nods. Leaning against the table, he watches his black-haired friend skip over to the bar to grab a glass of soda, before coming back to hand it over to him. Keito accepts it, tipping the drink into his throat before he hears the other man chuckle.

"You should turn 20, already, Kei-kun," Rei says, as if turning older is something Keito can magically control. "It'd be fun to drink with you. This old man's a little lonely~"

"You could drink with Amagi," Keito points out. "If you're _so_ lonely." 

Rei's smile scrunches up a bit. He downs the rest of his wine in a single go, and lets out a throaty, "No, thank you."

-

"Where…" Keito stares at the ceiling. "Where'd that….."

Souma is gleaming, hands placed on his hips triumphantly. "Adonisu-dono and I picked it out ourselves! Our very own _misserutou!"_

There's an exceptionally large mistletoe hanging in the middle of the room. Kuro is not aware of this. He's _standing_ in the middle of the room, amicably chatting with a Kaoru who is, also, standing, albeit a few safe inches away. 

Keito keeps staring. He unconsciously steps back.

-

The first one to fall victim to the throes of holiday tradition in the form of some wacky plant hanging over their heads is, unsurprisingly, Rei. Keito's already called Kuro over with a wave of his hand, and the two watch the self-proclaimed vampire walk deliberately under the mistletoe with a grin on his face. Kaoru skips over and on him with a small jump, his boyfriend catching him easily. They spin as Keito's seen in the romantic movies he's been forced to watch, and kiss as Keito's seen in the romantic movies he's been forced to watch. He feels apathetic. The others make a whole parade of inhumane noises.

Apathetic mostly because of Kuro's large hand resting on his waist, having had pulled the boy up and against his side as soon as he'd called him over. Keito thinks he might start involuntarily twitching when the soda in his glass runs out and holds nothing to being able to distract him any longer.

He doesn't mind this. Definitely not. They've always been comfortable and they've always been casual and they've always been like this. Maybe it's because of the tension in the room or maybe it's because of the accursed object hanging from the ceiling, but Keito thinks the feelings he's forced himself so hard to keep down from over the past two years might start acting up again. And that wouldn't be ideal.

It would never be ideal.

"Danna," Kuro says, on cue, and it's as if he's reading his thoughts and thoroughly encouraging his wish for premature demise, because his voice is _softer_ than anything Keito has imagined him to sound like. "D'ya wanna go over somewhere more…"

"Private?" Keito supplies, with a low chuckle.

"Yeah," Kuro gives him a small smile. "Yeah. Private. I wanna catch up with ya."

"We last met two days ago," Keito muses.

"Does that matter?"

Keito shakes his head. 

-

If someone presented him the opportunity to spend eternity with someone, Keito thinks he wouldn't have to think twice about it. This is a vague and unprompted thought that runs its course through his mind as Kuro takes his hand gently into his and leads him towards the open doors of the balcony, away from the noise and the laughter and the blatant PDA and the lighthearted cursing and the cursed plant hanging from the ceiling.

He doesn't let his hand go, Keito notices, not after he places the other around his waist again and nudges him to place his own free one on his shoulder. It's unprompted and out of place but also natural and comfortable and _familiar,_ and Keito finds himself falling yet again into the routine of the year he's tried so hard to compress down into the back of his brain.

There's no music, he wants to half-heartedly point out. There's no music, and they're slowly dancing around to the wisps of the wind and the crackles of laughter from inside the apartment like idiots. Even this sort of idiocy feels familiar. 

"It's been a long time since we did this, Danna," Kuro mumbles, staring into Keito's green eyes as if it doesn't compel him to melt right then and there. "Remember, those times in the-"

"Shush, Kiryu," Keito scolds, "You're going to ruin the moment." As if he does not say this just to quell the rising, heady feelings blossoming in his chest. Keito hypocritically (accidentally) steps on his foot right after, and Kuro lets out a dramatic noise that almost makes Keito do a double take. He scolds him a little more. Kuro's infectious grin widens a little more.

Putting his head on his shoulder and encouraging him to do the same, they continue their steps and sways. It's easy. It's easy to dance with someone you've been dancing with for years on end. It's easy to match the rhythm if it's someone you've been dancing with for years on end. Even if it's just two years. Even if it's just one double-ended nickname and a head of red and black hair and big shoulders and an unnatural strength. It's easy. It's easy for your heart to beat.

It's easy to depend.

-

Kaoru tips Rei's head back for the umpteenth time as his lips meet his again with an unrestrained fervour. Rei giggles with his stupid drunken stupour in the kiss, not even bothering to wrap his arms around the blond any longer. 

"You're insufferable, Rei-kun," Kaoru murmurs against his skin, as if he's not the one that's dragged him in this time.

"Hey," Rei hiccups, giggling again and pointing animatedly at the windows and door leading out to their balcony. "Hey. Kaoru-kun, I wanna dance with you, too." 

Kaoru lazily shifts his gaze from Rei's face to the direction he's pointing in, and his eyes blow up comically.

-

"Danna," Kuro says, when they've stopped dancing (read: moving in some weird, made up rhythm) and are standing with their arms around each other and heads buried into the other's necks. "There's somethin' I've been meaning to tell ya."

"Yes, Kiryu?" Keito replies, eyes closed and glasses resting on his forehead and dark green hair whisked out from the cold winds. Kuro doesn't look any better, probably, he thinks. But Kuro has always looked good, anyways. 

"It'd make more sense like _this_ ," he continues, slowly turning and steering Keito by his arms alone back into the apartment. It's warmer than standing out. It's a lot quieter than before, as well, but it's probably due to how everyone's evacuated into different rooms as soon as they'd sensed them coming back in. Not that they know this.

Kuro brings Keito to a standstill after a minute or so, and pulls away. Keito looks up at him as he brings his hands up to fix Keito's glasses, placing them gently and carefully to where they belong. The butterflies from before reincarnate back in his chest.

"Hey," Keito says, uncoolly, nervously, as if he's not been staring into Kuro's eyes for the past fifteen seconds. It's then that he realises: Oh God, The- 

"Hey," Kuro echoes, and brings in his face without another word. 

-

It doesn't feel like fireworks and it doesn't feel like he's a metaphorical can of gas being lighted with a shit ton of explosives, no. It's not magical and it's not out of this world.

But it's like a lull. A lull of the ocean, a sigh into the wind. A crashing wave, a distant blaring horn on the beach. A forgotten puzzle piece found fifty years later in a forgotten attic.

Keito's hands automatically go up and on his cheeks. Kuro kisses him slow, deliberate, gentle. He gives him time to breathe and time to pull away and time for so much more that Keito will never need. Keito does not need to breathe, not when Kuro is there to breathe for him.

He's not one to wax poetic analogies about things like this. Even if he could, now's not the time. 

Now's the time to melt.

-

"Merry Crisis," Koga bids, making Leon wave goodbye at the rest with his paw in an endearing way Keito does not get to see often from the usually-angry boy. "Have a good one, ya fucks." 

"We love you, puppy," Kaoru calls out fondly, waving to him as would a parent seeing their son off to primary school. "Take care of Adonis-kun, too!"

The purple-haired man bows respectfully in retaliation to this. "Take care of yourselves, Hakaze-senpai, Sakuma-senpai. We shall meet again soon."

Kaoru and Rei watch them go, letting out a sigh at the same time.

Keito looks at them with a blank expression. "Buddha," he says, "You two are worse than the average pair of grandparents." 

"You wouldn't know the turmoil of a parent without having a child of your own, Kei-kun," Rei whines, latching onto Kaoru again as if he were his life support. "Kao-kun, look, Glasses-kun is being mean again."

"I'll protect you, Rei-kun," Kaoru sighs, with the energy of a tired, domesticated cat.

"Who are you calling Glasses," Keito says, eyes twitching. Kuro grins from behind him. 

"Don't we already have a kid, though?" He says, looking over at the long-haired boy cleaning up diligently in the room behind them all. "An' a pretty good one at that." He looks undoubtedly smug about this. Keito appreciates the energy.

"It seems as if we have competition, Kaoru-kun," Rei says, with an equally distressing (drunk) smug look on his face as well. "What shall we pose? A battle of strength to find out whose child i-"

"That's enough out of you, Rei-kun," Kaoru interrupts. He looks at the other two apologetically, as if this is something he's had to put up with for fifteen years and nothing less. Keito nods. Kuro shrugs. 

Souma finishes cleaning up by the time Keito and Kuro have already bid their goodbyes. He stands in the middle with his sword in its rightful scabbard on his hip and a glowing smile that is so inherently childlike and so inherently _Souma._ He bids his own farewell and a thanks for the wonderful time he got to spend with Adonisu-kun and his own loved ones, and scurries out of the door without a second thought. But then he stops in the pile of snow outside of their apartment, and starts waving his arms.

"Merry 'Kurrisumasu'!" he yells.

The others nearly burst.

-

Kuro offers to walk back with him to his temple. He's already texted his sister and his sister has undoubtedly relayed the information to his family that he wouldn't be able to spend the rest of the night with them. Hopefully, they will understand. Just for today. Keito doesn't refuse the offer.

Kuro is comfortable. Kuro is familiar. The arm now linking in with his as they trudge through the snow and the billowing winds on the road back to his house is familiar. It's warmer. Warmer than what his scarf and the two layers of jackets on his body can provide for him.

Kuro is warm.

"Ya know," Kuro says, suddenly. The snow hasn't let up for about an hour, now. "I didn't think everythin' would turn out so…" He gestures with his free hand. A lot. He gestures a lot.

"Easy?" Keito supplies, and Kuro nods. 

"Easy," he repeats, in that throaty tone of his that's tired from noise and tired from the cold and tired from walking. "I didn't even get to say it."

"Say what?"

"Ya know," Kuro mumbles, and he's _blushing,_ and _fuck,_ Keito thinks he could live in this moment forever. "Ya know what I mean, Danna." 

"I want to hear it," Keito replies. And it's being selfish, he knows this. It's selfish and needy and possibly something that he genuinely and sincerely _needs_ before overthinking struts into his brain and decides to make camp. It's too easy. He's letting Kuro come into his life too easy and if there's any sort of verbal-

"I like ya, _Danna._ " 

If Keito had previously thought human combustion was a myth, he's ready to challenge that fact right now.

He responds with shoving his face into the depths of his scarf. "Thank you."

Silence.

"Thank….you….?"

Keito's ready to combust, now. Thank you very much.

-

"You're gonna stay, right?" Keito says, trying not to sound like a twelve-year old. It doesn't exactly work.

"Yeah." Kuro takes off his shoes accordingly and steps inside like he's been inside several times before and takes out the bedding from Keito's cupboards like he's done so many times before and laid it down neatly on the wooden flooring as he's done so many times before. Nothing's changed. 

Keito goes out for a few minutes to inform his family of his arrival and comes back in with a neutral expression. Kuro looks up at him from where he's lying down and opens his arms in an invitation to cuddle. Keito's neutral expression changes drastically to something unexplainable.

Cuddling up to Kuro feels..nice. It's like cuddling up to a stuffed bear. Except the stuffed bear is conscient and is wrapping its arms around his body lazily, making him put his head on his chest. Keito breathes in Kuro, and it feels all too familiar.

His heart is going to burst.

"Can I tell you something, too?" 

Kuro hums.

"Kiryu? I need you to be awake."

"I'm awake, Danna."

"Good." Keito fiddles with his fingers under the sheets like a schoolgirl waiting for her crush to read her confession letter. "I've liked you for a long time, Kiryuu-" he starts, mumbling and pushing his glasses up like he's not lying down on bed and they should be _off_ instead. "Since the beginning of our third year. In before I thought it was something that was supposed to just... _pass..._ I didn't think much about it.

"Kiryu, I don't know how-" Keito stops rather abruptly, because Kuro's taking his glasses off and putting them somewhere Keito can't see and then cupping his cheeks pushing his lips against his on instinct. Keito whines at being cut off, because that's the best he can do. And Kuro doesn't mind. Kuro takes it slow, languid and gentle. Keito's lips are a little chapped from his biting habit and Kuro's are a little rough from the cold and lack of lip balm but it's _okay_ and it's _wonderful_ still because Keito feels like he's reeling. Transcending through different dimensions at once. Something completely different from the first.

Keito pulls away first when he thinks the shortness of breath becomes liable to kill him. Kuro only laughs quietly against his lips, as if the green-haired boy isn't breathing harshly as a result of being ravaged out of something he was saying. 

"Kiryu!" He scolds again in a whisper, like he hasn't enjoyed whatever that has happened. "Let me finish, at least."

"We have all the time the world has'ta offer us, Danna," Kuro says, blunt. "I wanna take advantage of that."

"Incorrigible," Keito says on instinct, going red in the face. " Absolutely inco-"

Kuro kisses him again. As a treat.

-

Keito pats at the blooming red skin on his collarbone with an unidentifiable expression. Kuro looks down apologetically. 

"Makeup," Keito says, suddenly, as if he's seen the light. "Foundation."

"Exactly," Kuro encourages, taking this as some sort of sign with the way he hoists himself up again.

"Don't come near m- _KIRYU!_ "

-

Keito looks at him from the closet. "Goodnight," he says, blank.

Kuro doesn't look at him. He turns on his back and says goodnight to the wall, instead.

Keito buries his face in his hands. Fuck. 

-

  
  
  


Souma remembers having never taken down the mistletoe in the UNDEAD partners' living room. He decides to shut off cognitive thinking.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> this was fun. I'm never writing in one sitting agajn


End file.
